There have been seminal social media moments during the US election that became a battle cry from women across the world. The hashtag #DressLikeAWoman took over social media after claims surfaced that US President Donald Trump likes female staffers “to dress like women.” The fact that he expected a certain female dress code to qualify women as being women sparked indignation worldwide, and a tsunami of incensed tweets followed.

There was another Twitter storm, when women across the globe reclaimed the ‘nasty woman’ adage that Donald Trump unkindly bequeathed to Hillary Clinton at a Presidential debate. #IAmANastyWomanBecause went viral and women across the world pledged their ‘nasty’ solidarity to LGBTQ rights, education, racial equality, reproductive health care, and, of course, to having a woman in the most powerful position in the world. It didn’t matter which country you lived in; suddenly women found themselves at blows with Trump and his misogynistic, intolerant doppelgänger across the world. There was an outrage that women felt on a visceral level—a result of the coagulation of distrust and disservice done to them over generations.

In a world of quick fixes and sound bites, slogans became the tools of propaganda that instantly persuaded, amused, insulted and mobilised people. ‘My Body My Choice’, ‘It Was Never a Dress’, ‘Who Run the World?’ and many more turned the history of slogans into her-story of hashtags that multiplied and went viral. Hashtags, the shorthand truths of our lives today, despite their brevity, stirred us with their belligerent succinctness.

So, in this milieu of assertiveness and brazen activism, Maria Grazia Chiuri deployed a model in her debut show for Dior (spring/summer 2017) in a blue tulle skirt, sneakers and a white tee with the slogan ‘We Should All Be Feminists’. The image became the most Instagrammed look from the show.

“What surprised me the most was that in this moment I felt so deeply connected to women all over the world,” confessed Chiuri. “For me, the T-shirt was a personal thing. This collection was my first for Dior and since I did the collection in a month I had no time to think, overthink and analyse. I worked from my heart and it was led by pure instinct. There wasn’t any deep reflection. So, it came as a surprise to me that I was so connected with the moment.”

The fact is that Chiuri is not only an Italian at the helm of a quintessentially French brand, she is also the first female artistic director of the Dior maison, fronting a brand that has a long list of male design luminaries—Monsieur Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano, Bill Gaytten and Raf Simons. So being female suddenly seemed more conspicuous than ever. And she was going to celebrate that.

For one, the show notes made a point of explaining how important feminism is to Chiuri: ‘Feminism is a recurring word for her.’ What’s more, the Beyoncé song ‘Flawless’, which features Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s famous TEDx talk on feminism, played on the soundtrack at her show. And Adichie sat in the front row, beaming.

As a young adult, Chiuri spent hours discussing and deliberating global issues, vociferously announcing and dissecting in equal measure her ideals and opinions about the state of affairs with her friends. Now helming a storied French brand, she was afraid that the job would consume all her time and attention and she wouldn’t have her ear to the ground “But,” she says, “just when you think we have no time to connect with others, you connect suddenly in a surreal way. I could never imagine that there are so many people who share a similar thought process as me.” This marked her territory firmly in the fashion firmament—she is as much about pretty frocks as she is about feminism. And a truism expounded by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan—the idea that selfhood is overwhelmingly associated with the ways in which we are seen from the outside—seemed to hold true. For Chiuri, what you wear speaks volumes about who you are and how you wish to be perceived by the outside world.

At a time when clothing and its nuances have become an affirmation of gender identity, singularity and empowerment, Chiuri is acutely aware of fashion’s role as a powerful visual narrator of our times. In her spring/summer 2017 collection, the underlying theme of female strength was twofold—in accentuated sharp tailoring she embraced the fierce, and in the femininity of flowing gowns (worn with flat sneakers), the fabulous. In her opinion, making beautiful dresses is part of her traditional fashion education. She loves making that flawless dress that fits beautifully. But she also grew up with the idea that femininity is powerful and must be worn not as a crutch but as a badge of honour. “This collection taught me many lessons—believe in your own instinct and your own emotional make-up; don’t reflect too much on the stereotypes that have been imposed on you; and learn to lead with the heart and instinct.”

But surprisingly, what sold more than the slogan tees was her appropriation of Monsieur Dior’s famous Bar jacket. Her slackened-down style of the austere cinched-waist circa 1950s Dior was a comfortable and comforting version for the new-age woman. “Clothing can also be looked upon as protection,” Chiuri explains. “It is important to give women the opportunity to own clothes that they feel confident in, to express themselves in, but also feel protected in.”

Her autumn/winter 2017-18 show, which concluded a day before this interview, was inspired by the uniforms of women who worked during World War I. “Sometimes you need a uniform, a personal uniform to protect yourself. The reality about uniforms is that it is not about gender,” she says. “It allows you not to think about it. But you still feel confident in it because it is your ‘safe zone’. Her own ‘safe-zone uniform’, she confesses, is usually in black and blue, both trousers and skirts, but the Bar jacket is her all-encompassing protective wear. “I don’t have to think too much about it. When you are travelling around the world, these ‘uniforms’ allow you to focus on your work but also fight for your ideas.”

Being a female designer for female consumers, her biggest advantage, she says, is that she doesn’t have an idealistic vision of a woman, something perhaps a male designer falls prey to. “If someone says a woman has to be this way or that, I find it tiring. Who is the Dior woman? It is all about individuality and the mood of that particular woman. Women are mercurial and they change their attitude and spirit, not within days but within hours in a day.”

The legacy of the Dior code has been about being supremely feminine, no doubt; but today Dior’s is a respectable departure from that of the eulogised ’50s. For women around the world, is Dior now a go-to brand for everyday luxury? “Absolutely right,” agrees Chiuri. “It’s not just for parties and red-carpet moments. Of course, there are red-carpet moments but if you wake up every day and find a Dior to wear you can own your own red carpet every morning.”

For her debut collection, which showcased in Musée Rodin, Chiuri was adamant about being “attentive and open to the world and to create fashion that resembles the women of today.” And when, with a sweep, the cherubic model Ruth Bell walked the ramp in a white ensemble inspired by a fencing outfit—a quilted vest worn over a white shirt with breeches and athletic slip-on shoes, the fashion mood was that of quiet nonchalance. But within seconds everyone scrambled to find out how the metaphor of fencing fit into her sartorial smorgasbord.

“Fencing is a discipline in which there is balance between thought and action” says Chiuri. “The harmony between mind and heart is essential. Our education system is too masculine. It lays so little emphasis on instincts. Fencing teaches you the power of your mind and your heart in controlling a situation. Yes, there are swords but it’s never about killing anyone. It is about keeping a distance with intuition. You touch the heart with your sword, and you win.” This is a red-carpet moment of a spiritual kind.

For all her quiet rebellion, a more instinctual carpe diem is really her everyday mantra because she loves the audacity of living in the moment. She relies on an office teeming with spirited young millennials who help her navigate the thrilling but choppy waters of today’s sartorial choices and challenges. “I don’t influence them. They inflence me,” says Chiuri proudly. But it’s her daughter, Rachele (20), studying art in Goldsmiths in London, and son Nicolo (24), studying engineering in Rome, who keep her mentally and emotionally agile. “The dialogue I have with my daughter and son is usually about how critical it is to fight for what they believe in—whether it’s freedom or policies. It will not be easy but you must test yourself. You must be brave in life. My son may be fragile but he must learn to celebrate
that.”

So finally, this brings us to the notion of sartorial integrity: Are clothes integral to our ideals in life? Shahidha Bari, a lecturer in romanticism at Queen Mary University, London, in her inspiring essay titled ‘What Do Clothes Say?’, writes: “Clothes, however tricky, might also be understood as forms of thought, reflections and meditations as articulate as any poem or equation. What if the world could open up to us with the tug of a thread, its mysteries disentangling like a frayed hemline?” Chiuri agrees. “We need to speak about and internalise this. Fashion is closer to the people than you think.”